Acting Director-General of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Christy Ubah, has stated that members of the Corps who will act as ad hoc staff for INEC during this year’s elections should receive better pay due to the country’s economic difficulties.
Goldennewsng reports that she explained that the corps members’ allowances must be evaluated in light of current economic conditions because they cannot accommodate them.
She stated, “In its effort to ensure more corps members participated in the election process, the scheme had concluded plans to resume orientation camp for Batch A Stream 1 in January, the commission should leverage the orientation course to sensitize the corps members on their roles during the elections,” when INEC Chairman Prof Mahmood Yakubu paid her a courtesy visit on Friday.
State coordinators have also been instructed to encourage corps members to register on the INEC portal for the ad hoc staff assignment, according to Ubah, who noted that the scheme has made corps members aware that their security is already being taken care of.
The chairman of INEC, Prof. Yakubu, explained that it would be challenging to hold elections in the nation without the corps members.
He went on to say that the commission had implemented technology into the process of conducting elections, which would require well-educated and tech-savvy individuals to handle, stressing that corps members must be involved in the process.
He went on to explain that Corps members were required to operate in order to conduct the voting process at the polling units, compile the results, and transmit the results—the most important aspects of the elections.
According to Prof. Yakubu, members of the Corps were included in the inter-agency consultative committee on state-level election security, where state coordinators would collaborate with state Commissioners of Police to ensure a smooth process.
He stated that the commission would provide security to the lodges of election-related corps members while they were on the field to ensure their safety upon return.
In light of the country’s security concerns, he added, the commission had also provided insurance coverage for election-duty corps members.
